


Prelude to the Fall

by ElvhenGlory (wyrdo)



Series: Pride's folly [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, The clues are there, so does this title, this baby needs work., where would you go to learn a dead language?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-12 04:57:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11729964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyrdo/pseuds/ElvhenGlory
Summary: Ellana starts to see the clues and seeks to understand the nightmare's words.  This opens a door she will eventually regret not leaving closed.





	Prelude to the Fall

"Dirth ma, harrelan. ma banal enasalin. Mar solas ena mar din."

The words the demon shouted at her love crashed over her. Not because she understood them, they were Elvhen, but because he reacted to them. She'd already heard it speak to others, and had begun watching them for their reactions. So she saw him freeze. She saw the fury on his face for a split second before smoothing away.

Four steps later, she realized what else she had heard. His name.

The nightmare had not addressed any of the rest by their name. What could it mean?

She fought on, letting it filter through the back of her mind when she realized the sentence structure was wrong. She had some elvhen, She knew mar was "your", and nobody ever addressed her as "your Ellana". The word had to have another meaning. She filed it away. She also had enough elvhen to remember the words she didn't know. She'd deal with it when she had a way to translate it.

Later, other things occurred to her. Especially when she got the meaning from an old book.

What kind of farmer looks at an 8 day old baby and names him "Pride"? How many flat eared farmers know enough Elvhen to name their child? She knew that among the non-dalish, names were given early, they didn't necessarily speak to the underlying person. But how could one forsee a proud or haughty nature in a child still unable to manage expressions beyond happy and terribly sad? Besides, while Dalish names tended to mean something, city elves, and presumably country ones, tended not to

She wondered how many flat eared farmers had enough Elvhen to name their child with an Elvhen word. Perhaps they did not know the word, just that it was Elvhen ? Or, what? A family name? Mathematically speaking, the chances that two elves with no Elvhen would put those two syllables together seemed astronomically low.

"So what? " Dagna asked when Ellana approached her "So the name came later? Like The Iron Bull." Dagna looked unimpressed. "Varric gives everybody a nickname. And sometimes, especially in Ferelden, a nickname is bestowed that points to the opposite of one's nature. Like calling Bull, Shorty."

Ellana stared at the dregs in the bottom of her cup "I hope you're right, because Pride is a demon."

"You know he's not an abomination right?" Dagna said very seriously her brown eyes gentle on Ellana's.

"How do I know that? You've read the Tale of the Champion. Anders looked completely human even after Justice had become Vengence."

"Fundamental lack of growths and laws of nature being broken."

"You've seen an abomination?"

Dagna nodded. "Circle members also attend harrowings, and the Ferelden Templars were understandably nervous about the mages, I attended rather more than I'd prefer to have, since I'm immune. As for Anders, that was the strength of his will. I met him once, did I tell you? I had reached the Ferelden Circle just before they brought him back the last time. Strong will, but weak chin." Dagna said. "He was very kind to me when I needed a friend."

"You've just told me it's possible."

"No, I.... Hmm. I guess i did. No." she shook her head hard. "Cullen would know. He has seen a lot of them. Didn't he tell you?"

"Not really, no.  I suppose he saw a few in Kirkwall"

"Hm." The dwarf touched her tooth with a finger. Then shrugged. "There was a rumor that during the blight was really bad for him also. And another that he could spot an abomination from a mile away."

She shrugged "Anyway, sometimes the apprentice is NOT as strong as his the First Enchanter thinks and he comes back with a new friend. So yeah. I saw a couple of abominations, including a mage possessed by pride. Not half so pretty as your elf."

Sera used that moment to drop down from the rail above, hanging from her knees with her head dangling. She played a fanfare on a kazoo and shouted "Elvhen Glory!" followed by an inordinately lewd sound, presumably to approximate male orgasm.

As serious as this was, Ellana couldn't help but laugh. Dagna had a high pitched giggle that made it very hard to remember that she was of an age with the King of Ferelden.  It must be nice to appear so young for so long.

"So." Ellana said after Sera dropped down to join them, studiously avoiding Dagna's eyes. "Why Pride?"

"Stuck up elf, yeah?" Sera proclaimed after waving flirtily at Maryden. She followed that with a rude gesture and flopped down beside Ellana at the table.

"Did you just wink at the minstrel?" Dagna asked, somewhat jealously.

"Flipped her off too." Sera said testily finally meeting the dwarf's eyes.

 _I think i need to translate the whole sentence_  Ellana thought as the subject was traipsed out to pasture in order to make room for subjects more interesting to Sera than this odd feeling about he man who had claimed to love the Inquisitor.

 

\-----

 

The words of the nightmare gave her pause, true, and they started her on the path of questions. But they weren't the whole of it

Over time, more inconsistencies popped up.

  * He spoke with certainty about Arlathan but could not even tell her whether Cailan was betrayed at Ostagar because the "fade captured both"
  * He scoffed at stories told by the Dalish, constantly alluding to a truth behind the "Fable". One that she would not like.
  * He had been so... different at Halamshiral.  So comfortable with the underpinings of sex and politics that was uniquely Orlesian.



Or maybe she was just annoyed that he was always correcting her pronunciation of Elvhen words.

Sure, if pressed he had a glib and believable answer explaining it. Multiple different memories adding up over time. Time spent sleeping at ancient shrines.  Thousands of memories in forgotten castles full of Orlesian, and even older politics.  And this relationship thing they were pursuing made it hard to suspect him of lying. But she was not an idiot and she had people for this.

She enlisted Harding. It may have been her fault that the "dancing lessons" were cancelled and "Sing-quisition" placed on hiatus.

"You want me to locate and investigate your boyfriend's family and home town and you want me to keep it from the Nightingale?" Harding had asked her.

Ellana shrugged "Or tell her I asked you to find something he left behind as a child. It's not like my entire inner circle isn't asking me to find stuff or do things, or help with stuff. Hell, Dorian's damn dad asked me to get him to Redcliffe so they could ask his damnable forgiveness. Look how that went?"

"What am I really doing?"

"Looking for his first girlfriend?" Ellana suggested lamely.

Harding leaned back and stared at the elf.  Then shook her head and began walking down the stairs from the battlemennts.

"Fine," Ellana said, catching up to the dwarf on the final flight down to the lower courtyard, "looking for whatever happened to him to make him so..."

"Stupid?" Harding asked with her customary crooked smile.

"Distant." Ellana said frowning at the scout

"I'm sticking with stupid here." Harding said as Ellana walked with her.

"Let me guess." Blackwall said joining them as they passed the stables heading toward the Herald's rest. "Solas?"

"How did you...?"

"Stupid" Blackwall said simply "followed by Distant."

Ellana's face grew stormy. Solas was not stupid. He was wise, he was interesting. He was...

"I know that look" Blackwall drawled "But it is true. Any man who caught the eye of someone as beautiful, smart and as talented a tactician as you would have to be what we in the ranks refer to as a 'Damn Fool', or 'idiot' in the common parlance." He grinned at her, his teeth bright against the backdrop of his beard. "or just stupid."

Ellana did a double take. Blackwall? Really? He had to know she wasn't interested. He was a shem and a Grey Warden suffering under the call to boot.

Blackwall and Harding laughed at the face she made. She forced her mouth closed and laughed, shaking her head. She had heard about the "weird elfy fetish" as Sera called it that so many Shems had, but Ellana was Dalish. The quick races tended to have derision and aversion rather than fetishes on their mind in her experience.

Months passed and she forgot her concerns as love blossomed instead. She'd written down the words, but put them aside.

Everything, however, came in on the same day.

The first, neatly calligraphed, practically suitable for framing. 22 different potential translations of those few Elvhen words. Skyhold probably had enough walls to hang the treatise that accompanied the translations, maybe. None of the translations seemed to make any real sense. Why speak Elvhen when you aren't revealing any more than any of the other statements the Nightmare made.

The second was one page. The hometown Solas had provided did not exist, save in an old document which the King of Ferelden claimed had been presented to him by the Hero of Ferelden. A rubbing of a mosaic of female amidst a field of dead monsters.  He told Harding he had watched her take it on the way out of an ancient Elven ruin in the Brecilian Forest.

The gift did not center on the words, but on the Lady of the Forest and so the words were cut off. But he'd given precise directions to the ruin, which turned out to be useless since they centered on the location of Dalish Aravels which were now gone from the forest. However other landmarks like a grand oak, and an ancient bural place had allowed Harding to eventually find the place but it had crumbled further in the intervening years. The experts she'd consulted, though suggested it was the name of the place.

In short, if she was correct, the Ferelden farm town Solas claimed was his hometown crumbled long before Andraste walked, before there was a Ferelden.

Harding was angry. Her freckled face stretched into such a grimace that Ellana hardly recognized her friend.

"I need to inform Sister Nightingale."

"No"

Harding's mouth snapped shut on the words she'd meant to follow her statement and Ellana watched a shutter come down. Harding's face took on the closed look she frequently saw on Solas. She was getting better at recognizing it.

"He is a dreamer. Perhaps it is the last place he dreamt."

"He lied to the inquisition. To the right AND left hand of the divine"

Ellana shrugged. "So did Varric."

She reached idly for the calligraphed translations and the Elvhen language treatise. There was something she was missing. She was nearly there. Just one or two more pieces of the puzzle.

"Are you sure you aren't letting your feelings get in the way of what's right?" harding asked, looking a bit shocked at her audacity.  

Ellana shook her head.

"I'm almost there." she said, "I cannot chase him away before I have all the pieces on the board. We all have secrets. Would you have Sister Nightingale know yours if she doesn't already?"

Harding stomped out, cursing under her breath, (something about humping nugs?) and the Inquisitor picked up the document that called to her and not only because it might reveal her heart's motivation to her.   

 

> _The language spoken by the ancient people known as Elvhen was not designed to be written. It was nuanced, it relied not just on words but on context, pronunciation, even body language. this makes learning and translating a language now only spoken by ghosts and lesser demons as difficult as Common would be if you removed all the vowels..._

Absorbed already, the inquisitor leaned back in her chair, putting her bare feet on the top of her desk. A few hours later, she took the book to her bed with her

He had refused her advances and invitations to progress this...relationship. If she could not hold him, she would take his beloved Elvhen language to bed. 

\-----

 

> _Ellana stood facing the highest waterfall she had ever seen. Rainbows danced in it's spray. Two dragonflies chased each other through the mist. Two halla behind her did the same. Behind them two martens did something that could only be described as "frolicking"._
> 
> _This close to water, there were always predators. Her fingers itched for her staff but when she reached for it, it was not there. She looked down and was shocked to find herself in a gossamer gown of the style depicted in Ghilan'nain's Grove._
> 
> _That should have given it away, but it wasn't until all three pairs of animals stopped frolicking and bowed to her that she realized she was dreaming._
> 
> _Once she knew she dreamt, it was relatively simple to take control of it. She'd been doing this for years before she met her first dreamer. Any keeper worth his or her salt, taught his first and second lucid dreaming, to better identify demonic attacks, but her control of her dreams had exploded since she woke up in that dark basement of the Haven chantry. She returned their bows. Turning back to the water she saw a glowing being, a spirit, like Solas' friend had been, however this being was formed as if he were an elf where Solas' friend had appeared human. He seemed to have shadows of a vallaslin but Ellana was uncertain which the being wore._
> 
> _He greeted her in Elvhen and she responded. Then she tumbled through a question, asking for help with her Elvhen. He agreed in exchange for tales of the Inquisition and they spent a few lovely hours conjugating verbs. She idly wondered what her clan would think if they could see her now. Presumably just what they had thought when they saw her poring over tomes while they practiced bow work._
> 
> _Partway through a few words on gerunds, her new friend froze, then disappeared. She heard a sound in the wood behind her. A predatory sound. The hair on the back of her neck rose. She turned slowly, lightning arcing between her fingers. Six red eyes blinked at her and she gasped._
> 
> Fen'Harel? _she thought,_ Why?
> 
> _She stared at him. He stared back._
> 
> _She thought hard. What had she done to give him her scent. She tried to think of the last time she had called his name in vain._
> 
> _People held her up as Herald of a wholly different god. Perhaps acting as "Herald" while knowing the truth about what happened at the temple of ashes was enough of a lie to get his attention?_
> 
> _But she had asked Josephine to reveal the truth. Josie had perhaps not put quite as much effort into getting it out than she had into the rumor that Ellana WAS the Herald, but she had complied._
> 
> _Perhaps he had some ancient beef not just with the Creators but with the human's Maker too?_
> 
> _But Fen'Harel's deals were about things you wanted but didn't need. Besides, didn't you usually have to call him to make such a deal?_
> 
> _The blackness of the forest at night resolved into the form of the great black wolf of legend as he moved closer._
> 
> _Ellana was afraid, who would not be faced by a god? But Fen'Harel was a trickster, a dealmaker. He offered deals. What did she want then that she might not actually need? What did she need that one might believe she would make a deal for._
> 
> _She shook herself. She stood here, like a child, gaping at a god. No matter what he might have done, he deserved her respect. Didn't she tell Solas that he was as much a protector as a betrayer?_
> 
> _So she bowed._
> 
> _The wolf blinked, once, twice, three times. As if he had been distracted from deeper thoughts as he regarded her. All six eyes widened and he bowed back._
> 
> _She stood there, waiting, until finally she felt the silence must be pierced, if not by Fen'Harel, then by her._
> 
> _"Isn't it customary to offer a deal?" she said blandly_
> 
> _The wolf jumped, as if she had startled him. As if he too felt some trepidation. As if he could not, with one great bite from his massive maw, end her. But then he considered her again. His eyes searched her face, and she grew impatient._
> 
> _"You must have interrupted my lesson for a reason." She told him irritation finding it's way into her voice._
> 
> _And then, even stranger, the great Fen'Harel backed into the woods. Turning only when he was out of reach and the red glow of his eyes disappeared into the forest.  As if she were the predator, and he the prey._
> 
> _Ellana collapsed. Her heart beat so loud she could hear it in her ears. She pressed her hand weakly to her chest._
> 
> _"He has no interest in hurting you, or even tricking you." Came a voice she recognized even here. Cole's voice._
> 
> _"Then what does he want?" She asked the spirit turned boy._
> 
> _"That gown," Cole began "gossamer wings on a lithe figure. So beautiful. So perfect. An untouchable dream. A shining star in a field of drab darkness."_
> 
> _"So... what?" Ellana was annoyed, irritated by Cole's evasion. "He wants... me?" she asked. But Cole was gone._
> 
> _She waited a while for her teacher to return, but apparently knowledge had been well and truly frightened away._

**Author's Note:**

> Proverbs 16:18 - Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
> 
> Timeline Note: Depending when you next go looking for Blackwall after Suledin Keep there is some time before his companion quest triggers for a chance run in on the way to the tavern from the battlements. Or just assume i know i'm playing fast and loose with some things that aren't too relevant to the Solavellan thing.
> 
> Anywho this story comes from the sentence that opens this story. I read probably five translations but people just keep sticking to the words, and not remembering that Elvhen, as we are told several times, is a language of context and interpretation. So, i changed the translation and moved toward meaning, not words. When i did that, i started liking the statement. My translation follows, it is only very loosely based on Project Elvhen..like almost not at all.
> 
>  
> 
> Translations  
> "Dirth ma, harrelan. ma banal enasalin. Mar solas ena mar din." = You never learn, trickster. Your victory will be empty. Your pride will be your downfall.
> 
> Kudos and comments always welcome.


End file.
